The installation on SLES 9 completed successfully, with no problems getting the GUI installer working, and no errors during the install. This smooth installation isn't surprising, given that SLES 9 is an officially supported platform for DB2.

Basic test results (see Section 21, “Installation and operation test plan” for more details) were successful.

However, I found that after a reboot, the DB2 instance was not being restarted automatically, so clients could not connect to the database. To correct this problem, execute this command as the instance owner:

db2set DB2AUTOSTART=YES

This will ensure that the DB2 instance is initialized and ready to receive incoming connections after a reboot (intentional or otherwise).

Also, to allow DB2 access through the firewall (which is enabled by default), it was necessary to add the port values to the firewall using the YaST utility.

You can use the db2 get dbm cfg | grep SVCENAME command to retrieve the DB2 instance service name. By default, this is set as a TCP connection at port 50001. Note that you will need to add another new TCP rule to allow firewall access if you create any additional instances later. If you want to remotely administer the DB2 installation on this system, the UDP and TCP connections at port 523 should also be allowed through the firewall.

To open these ports using YaST, open the YaST tool, and select "Security and Users, then select the "Firewall" icon. In the setup panel, click "Next" and then on the "Expert button. In the ports dialog, add 523 50001. Click "Next" until the setup wizard completes and then "Continue" so that YaST will restart the firewall with the new configuration. Remote connections will now pass through to the DB2 instance.